Oxazoline compounds are known, and are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,216,162; 3,813,378; 2,786,870; 2,718,520; and 2,820,041.
Processes for making oxazolines are known, such as described in European Patent Application 130,633, U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,892 and the article "Formation of Cyclic Imidic Esters by Reaction of Nitriles with Amino Alcohols" by H. Witte and Wolfgang Seeliger, Liebigs Ann Chem. pp 996-1009, (1974) which utilizes catalytic amounts of certain metal salts. U.S. Pat. No. 2,402,198 describes a process for preparing oxazolines by reacting monoethanolamine with a nitrile in the presence of an alkaline catalyst. U.S. Pat. No. 2,759,001 discloses preparing racemic mixtures of isomeric oxazolines by reacting dichloroacetonitrile with an aminodiol compound. U.S. Pat. No. 3,979,405 discloses preparing 2-oxazolines by reacting an amino alcohol with a nitrile in an anhydrous alcohol such as n-butanol or cyclohexanol. None of these references teach a method for preparing oxazolines employing a dihydric or polyhydric alcohol solvent. It would be desirable to provide a process for preparing oxazoline compounds whose yields, purity and selectivity are as good as or better than methods previously taught. It would also be desirable to provide a process for preparing said oxazoline compounds which requires as few or even fewer steps than methods previously taught. It would also be desirable to provide a process which is as economical, if not more so, than previous methods. Further, where two or more potential structural isomers may be formed, it would be highly desirable to provide a process which is regio-selective i.e. produces only one structural isomer.